See 'Moneyball' — You Don't Have To Like Either Brad Pitt Or Baseball To Love It!

Hands down, Moneyball is the best movie of the year so far! Here’s why.

Finally, finally a film that’s not a sequel, a super-hero fantasy or a kids’ cartoon. Brad Pitt may be missing a few sensitivity chips personally, but he has plenty as Billy Beane, a failed baseball player turned general manager of the Oakland As baseball team.

The film is based on the real life Beane and his struggles to build a competitive team with a tiny budget compared to big league teams like the Yankees and Mets who keep buying away his most talented players.

It’s a modern day David Goliath story and yes, it’s a real human story, full of risk-taking , determination, persistence, and love of family.

Beane knows he has to break out of the traditional route for baseball team building if the Oakland As are ever to succeed. He can’t win if he abides by the ,same-old, same-old talent-finding rules that his team of baseball scouts propose AGAIN!

Instead he takes an enormous professional and personal risk when he hires nerdy computer stats geek Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), a Yale grad, to put together a whole new Oakland As team from cheap players whose talents have been until now, overlooked.

Naturally, the initial results are disastrous, but Beane is a man who persists because he knows he will NEVER win by sticking to the standard formula.

Brad Pitt, looking worn for wear — which he probably actually loves, is completely believable as Beane, who couldn’t win as a player, but decides he MUST win as the As general manager.

He talks the talk, walks the walk. He’s surrounded by weary, cynical, badly dressed Oakland A baseball scouts and a disbelieving, subversive field manager, Art Howe, played brilliantly by Philip Seymour Hoffman.

But it’s really his Matt & Jeff relationship with stats devotee Peter Brand that is most affectionate and relatable.

In fact, it’s an even better professional collaboration than he had with a certain sexy brunette that led to all kind of fireworks and six kids. This one may actually lead to an Oscar!